This year’s edition of Michelin Guide Singapore may not have favored hawker stalls once again, but that’s okay because we all have our own go-to’s anyway. And with the PM’s call for a smart nation (read: cashless payments) being a hot topic, the implementation of robots at work and the recent introduction of Singapore’s first hawker center to accept wireless payments (why QR codes, though?), we can’t help but wonder what will happen to our beloved street food meccas. And then there are these guys.
Just last year, Tiger Beer set up a new initiative to help aspiring hawkers with setting up their stalls. These successful hawkerpreneurs each earned $10,000 at a ceremony earlier this year to cover hefty initial costs, and have since experienced their own highs and lows; with some dropping out entirely. Come Sep 22, you’ll be able to try a whole selection of authentic street food made by these tenacious fund recipients at the inaugural Tiger Street Food Festival
While we can’t promise mind-blowing flavors, we can tell you that some of the participants have pretty ambitious plans for their stalls. Take for example the youngest participant, 24-year-old Raymond Tan; he’s currently studying and cutting his teeth at Snuggrubs over at CT Hub 2, serving Western food with a local twist. Or the most senior of the lot, 58-year-old Chow Kooi Yew, who went on to open a stall selling assam laksa and Thai crispy egg after the company he was working in folded.
And then there are the in-betweeners like third-generation-hawker Anthea Tan, who recently opened up her own stall in Yishun using her grandfather’s various noodle recipes (like bak chor mee and laksa), as well as Edward Too with his salted cereal chicken rice bowls and braised sauce beef rice bowls that he and a group of friends from a business culinary course in Temasek Polytechnic are currently whipping up daily at the MOE Building.
So head down to the open field at Tan Quee Lan Street from 5-10:30pm and enjoy various street food favorites from 17 different participants while catching some great live performances from local bands. Also, Tiger Beer has promised to commit the same amount of proceeds made on the day for the next edition of their Street Food Support Fund.
More info here.
